Albany, NY – The visiting UMBC men's basketball team shot a blistering 58 percent from the field en route to a 114-102 victory against the UAlbany Great Danes, in an America East Conference victory on Saturday evening at Boadview Center. The point total is the most the Retrievers have ever scored against a Division I opponent in regulation. In addition, the Dawgs set a program-high for a half with 69 points in the second stanza.
UMBC (7-16, 2-6 AE) sophomore guard
Dion Brown scored 29 points on 11-of-20 shooting to lead a season-high six Retrievers in double-figures. Brown, who also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, produced his fifth "double-double" and has now scored 20 or more points ten times this season.
Freshman guard
Franck Emmou came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points, shooting 6-of-7 from the floor while making 10-of-12 free throws. Junior guard
Marcus Banks Jr. added 20 points, five rebounds and four assists. Sophomore forward
Regimantas Ciunys turned in a career effort with 14 points and six rebounds and graduate student forward
Max Lorca-Lloyd registered a new personal-high of 12 points and added five assists along with a pair of rejections. Freshman
Ace Valentine was the final Retriever in double-digits with 10 points and the guard added four assists and came up with a team-high three steals.
Guard Tyler Bertram scored a game-high 36 points for UAlbany (11-12, 3-5 AE) and set a new school record with 10 triples on 16 attempts.
UMBC trailed by as many as 13 points in the opening half as the hosts jumped out to a 23-10 advantage at the 12:43 mark. The Retrievers eventually took their first lead of the game, 45-44, after a fast break dunk by Ciunys with thirty-four second left in the opening stanza and took that lead to the locker room.
The Retrievers put on an incredible offensive display over the final twenty minutes as they scored a program-record (half) 69 points on 65 percent shooting. The visitors overwhelmed the Great Danes as they hit 24-of-37 field goal attempts and went 18-for-22 from the foul line.
Brown had 19 points and eight boards in the half while Emmou and Ciunys combined for 26 points.
UMBC extended their halftime advantage to 66-55 at the 14:47 mark after a fast break layup by Ciunys.
UAlbany trimmed the deficit to 66-58 after two free throws by guard Amar'e Marshall with 14:06 left, however, the Retrievers went on a 14-5 surge to widen their lead to 80-63 with just over ten minutes remaining.
The hosts managed to get as close as seven points, 101-94, with 1:48 left but that was as close as they could get.
UMBC finished 42-for-73 from the field and went a season-best 24-of-29 (82.8 percent) from the line. The Retrievers out rebounded the Great Danes by a 39-33 margin and scored a season-best 68 points in the paint.
UMBC will host UMass Lowell on Thursday evening.
